“You hate him from here to breakfast for
keeping that Mexican girl out of your reach”
To
qualify for prime B-western status one needs an economic narrative, salient dialogue,
a compelling style and unexpected twists to retain a viewer’s attention.
Humberstone’s film begins by dealing us one such surprise. The stagecoach
carrying urbane lawyer Adam Stewart and his son Howie (Skip Homeier) is waylaid
by a gang of Mexican bandits who escort him through the desert. They are,
however, brought to rest at the ranch in Ocatilla, their original destination.
It’s owned by Adam’s brother, the distinguished rancher John Stewart, and what appears
to be an ambush turns into a heartfelt reunion. Despite Howie’s surliness, John
welcomes his shaken sibling, who is sporting enough to appreciate the practical
joke.
John’s
fellow rancher, Wick Campbell, feels demeaned by the magnitude of Stewart’s empire
and position in society. Their rivalry is scorched into the simmering stare
they exchange. Campbell also has an Achilles’ heel. The Mexican girl, Maria, once
a rescued orphan in his charge, has become the focus of his sexual obsession;
the emotional hysteria generated by this plot point is gleaned from preceding
westerns such as Duel in the Sun and,
to a lesser extent, Johnny Guitar. Whereas
Duel’s Lewt McCanles’ passion for
Pearl Chavez is eroticised, Campbell’s desire is essentially emasculating him. When
Maria fears for her safety at Campbell’s hands she seeks asylum at John’s
ranch. Campbell hires ten gunmen to dethrone John and take her back.
The
lurid Technicolor palette captures azure skies, arid badlands and Ocatilla’s
adobe structures. Careful framing depicts the developing power structure in the
town. In one audacious scene, Stewart and the leader of Campbell’s hired guns, Frank
Scavo (Leo Gordon), try to get the drop on each other – the remainder of the reprobate
gunmen fill one frame in staggered positions, enforcing their intimidating
presence. In another example of the film’s dramatic and visual subterfuges,
Stewart is forced into a gunfight with Al Drucker (Lee Van Cleef) in the belief
that it’s Campbell.
Scott’s
working relationship with producer Harry Brown began in 1941 with Western Union. They would go on to make
some of the following decade’s finest B-westerns, with Scott portraying
increasingly seasoned and stoic characters. An apex was reached when Bud
Boetticher came on board to collaborate with Brown and Scott for six highly
regarded western chamber pieces. Ten
Wanted Men is an example of how the Brown-Scott alliance was progressing not
long before the Ranown cycle.
The
cast is a dream for B-western fans. As Frank Scavo, who oversees his killers as
they gun down the innocent civilians of Ocatilla, Leo Gordon steals many a
scene with his pockmarked glare. Skip Homeier plays against type as the young
city boy who finds love in Maria but incurs Campbell’s wrath. In one of the
film’s well-sketched bursts of action, he is duped into gunning down Dave Weed
(an uncredited Denver Pyle), thereby landing himself in jail. A young Dennis
Weaver does a sterling job as the conflicted sheriff whose power has been
usurped by Stewart and Campbell’s bloody rivalry.
It’s
a rivalry that culminates in a siege that begins at dusk, producing a
portentous atmosphere that reflects Scott’s subtle mood change, from charming
to brooding. There are partial glimpses of the gunmen’s faces among the adobe
structures, creating disquiet before the bullets fly; when the scene seems a
little overstretched, a dynamite attack rejuvenates the pace.
As
in many of the era’s films the final scene is somewhat cloying, particularly
considering the rather elementary attitude to violence displayed beforehand.
This, however, is symptomatic of the majority of Fifties genre movies. With its
granite-faced cast, moments of poetry and righteous hero, it’s certainly one
that guarantees entertainment. Scott was all too familiar with these scenarios;
by the time he was working with Boetticher, the trials faced by his characters
would not be so easily resolved.
Clark Hodgkiss
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